Dubai:  The lawyer of a suspect, serving seven years in jail for raping a girl, has said the victim had earlier been convicted of having consensual sex in another case, heard a court.

The 18-year-old Emirati suspect, S.K., and 20-year-old Iraqi, W.F., were convicted of kidnapping and repeatedly raping the 18-year-old Emirati girl, who reports said had fled her parents' home.

S.K.'s lawyers Jassem and Yasser Al Naqbi, of Excel Advocates and Legal Consultants, revealed for the first time in the course of this case before the court of appeal that the girl had been earlier convicted for "consensual sex".

"Our client is innocent ... he didn't kidnap or rape the girl. She lodged a malicious complaint and her statement was inconsistent. She claimed that she is not a virgin and the medical report proved the opposite. Records showed that she left her family's house two days prior to the incident ... is it possible or logical for a girl her age to spend two days away from her parents' house," the lawyers said before Presiding Judge Adnan Al Farra yesterday.

The court of cassation had overturned the initial and appeals rulings and ordered the appeal's court to hold a retrial. An imam found the girl when took shelter in the men's washroom in a masjid in Al Warqa.